Taunton assault suspect sentenced on drug charges

Tuesday

Apr 1, 2014 at 7:19 PMApr 1, 2014 at 9:01 PM

Charles Winokoor Taunton Gazette Staff Reporter @cwinokoor

A Taunton man still awaiting trial for allegedly stabbing a homeless man over a petty drug debt was sentenced to a year in prison on Tuesday after pleading guilty to drug charges in Taunton District Court.

Max Charles Jr., 51, whose last known address is 9 Taunton Green, was sentenced by Judge Gregory Phillips to concurrent one-year and six-month sentences after pleading guilty to two sets of identical charges for distribution of a Class B substance — cocaine — and conspiracy to violate drug laws.

Charles also was concurrently credited with 129 and 152 days served for his time spent in custody pending trial.

The first drug-related arrest occurred in May 2013 when detectives from the street crimes detective unit arrested Charles after police said he sold $40 of crack cocaine to two Middleboro men.

The second incident was in October 2013, when an undercover Massachusetts State Police trooper arrested Charles after the trooper said Charles sold him $40 of crack. Marked bills passed by the trooper to Charles, and recovered by police, provided evidence leading to his arrest.

Charles continues to be held without bail on charges of assault with intent to murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and witness intimidation.

He was arrested in January after allegedly using a knife to stab a homeless man who was carrying a $25 drug debt.

The 45-year-old victim, who suffered a puncture wound to the chest but was not treated at the hospital, identified Charles as the person who assaulted him in the hallway outside a second-floor apartment where Charles was living with a girlfriend.

The Brooklyn-born Charles, who police said goes by the street moniker Dread, also allegedly pressed the knife against the victim’s throat and said, “I am Jamaican and do not care. I will (expletive) kill you.”

Charles’s 29-year-old girlfriend was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon, a double-edged knife, and resisting arrest.

The apartment house at 9 Taunton Green has become known as a trouble spot with local law enforcement for its drug activity.

Police say they’ve been called to the downtown building numerous times during the past year, including for a woman who overdosed on heroin inside a third-floor unit and subsequently died at Morton Hospital.

Charles is scheduled back in district court for a status review hearing on the assault case on May 1.